But mostly, it gives me an excuse to quote John Derbyshire's literally devilish argument in her favour. Try and see her candidacy in the same light ever again after reading this.

"Hillary is ice-cold. You can see it in her eyes. She is a piece of work - 'Hillary inspires fear.' Of course, for Nixon, that was a high compliment."

That, and following quotes, from Tony Blankley's piece in the Washington Times.

I'm going to admit that, reading Tony's piece, it suddenly flashed through my mind that there might, conceivably, be circumstances in which I would vote for Hillary. Let me say at once that this thought flashed right through my mind and out the other side; but for a moment there I saw the point of Hillary.

She is icy mean and ruthless. As a shark lives only to swim and eat, Hillary lives to move through the political waters accumulating power. She is s-c-a-r-y.

"Mr. Klein describes Sen. Clinton's encounter with some New York liberals who had raised money and campaigned for her and had close ties to Marian Wright Edelman (Mrs. Clinton's ideological god-mother.) The women had come in to seek Sen. Clinton's support for a child care bill. When they asked her why she was not supporting it, Sen. Clinton explained: 'It's not going to fly. I'm not going to spend my political capital on something that is doomed before it starts.' The women responded: 'We want you to spend your capital whether you win or not. If it was Ted Kennedy, he'd stand on what he believes.' Hillary bristled at the invidious comparison between her and Ted Kennedy. 'If you don't understand my position, there is nothing more to say. I have other people waiting. Good bye.' And with that, she strode out of the room in a huff. The women understood quite well: 'She will do anything to get to the White House, including dropping child care.'"

Admit it, there's a case for cold-blooded ruthlessness in the White House. There are times you might want that -- really want it, more than you want strict-constructionist judges, more than you want federalism, more than you want to preserve marriage or restrain spending or keep women out of combat. Right after we lose our first city to a nuke, perhaps.

I still find it really, really hard to imagine myself voting for Hillary. Just not impossible.

Say what you like about her, she's no bleeding heart, no Jimmy Carter. "He lied to me!" wailed JC when he found that Leonid Brezhnev had been telling him commie whoppers for four years. Can you imagine such a reaction from Hillary? Her working assumption is that everyone around her is, like herself, lying through their teeth from dawn to dusk. She deals with the world accordingly.

She's no Bill Clinton, either. "Nixon explained that a few minutes after the meeting started Chelsea Clinton joined the group. The kid ran right to Clinton and never once looked at her mother. I could see that she had a warm relationship with him, but was almost afraid of her mother."